Track listing: Images
"Images" is the first single from Maria Rago's forthcoming album Lady M, slated for release in October of 2024. Composed by Rago, sung by soprano Laura Gómez, with orchestration performed by members of the Vancouver Ensemble, "Images" has already been recognized with Second Prize honors at the 2024 Compostion Competition in Warsaw, Poland. The sound engineer on the project is Alessandro Rivolta, bringing to life Rago's vision through the vocal and orchestral performances.
Stylistically speaking, "Images" embodies the emotion and individual expression found throughout Romantic period opera with its vocal, orchestral, and lyrical drama ebbing and flowing in a singular powerful narrative. Rago's lyrics tell the story of a man's metaphorical journey. As he watches a river, represented by the orchestra itself, he envisions its characterization of his own life--his joy, pain, memories, dreams steadily flowing by. Gómez's voice serves as a sort of muse for the man as he watches his life (the river) flow onward, out into the great beyond.
The metaphor of life interestingly carries over technically speaking into the song's waveform. You can see in the embedded recording of "Images" the slow build from youth through the activity of adult life, and on into the declining 'sunset' of the man's time on earth. Perhaps this visual concept was not a purposeful intent but is interesting in that the composition's own structure mirrors the lyrical concept. The work's orchestration follows suit, with its slow-building crescendo to the song's midpoint, followed by a similarly paced decrescendo through to "Images'" end.
Born in Italy, studied in France, and now residing in the U.S. state of Illinois, you can feel Maria Rago's passion for not only music, but also art, film and travel as you listen to "Images." The inclusion of nature is central to the work, as is the human connection and similarity to the progression of time in the natural world. You can follow Maria, the release of Lady M, and hear more of her work all at mariaragomusic.com.